Auctions

ATG's pick of books and works on paper recently sold at auction...

As we approach the second anniversary of our inaugural 2016 auction, we are again delighted to be the sponsors of Antique Trade Gazette’s ‘Books, Maps & Prints’ supplement.

Night after night in the summer of 1916, the artist and bookbinder Thomas James Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922) visited the Thames near Hammersmith Bridge under cover of darkness, each time laden down with a package wrapped in brown paper and string.

In the bicentenery year of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Gothic genre continues to capture the popular imagination, writes Kate Quill.

Gothic literature is perhaps most alive in the public imagination today through cinema, with horror films inspired by the classic Gothic stories going back to the earliest days of the medium.

The photobook genre is almost as old as photography itself and can be collected at all price points, as Bonhams’ Matthew Haley reports.

The administrator BDO’s report into the collapse of Mossgreen has recommended that the Australian auction house’s former management be investigated by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over possible criminal activities.

Two finely executed Indian talismanic shirts made multi-estimate sums at Roseberys in south London.

ATG’s selection of auction lots bought by internet bidders on thesaleroom.com from the period April 19-25, 2018. This includes both the highest prices over estimate and the top prices paid online.

Since the start of the Chinese boom at UK auctions many, if not most, estimates have been little more than here-to-sell signals. Settling on a figure with which vendors are happy with, and then leaving it to the worldwide market on the net, is now common practice.

A volume containing Richard Hooker’s sixth and eighth books dealing with The Lawes of Ecclesiastical Policy… is a 1651 re-issue of an edition first published three years earlier. The principal attraction, however, was the armorial binding.

A classic, rare 1938 poster for the London Underground designed by the Surrealist artist Man Ray is one of the highlights of a graphic design sale to be held by Swann Galleries on May 3.

Manchester United fans grumbling about the current style of play will be interested to learn that when Matt Busby joined as manager he was contractually obliged to play entertaining football.

A 10in (25cm) tall Kangxi period (1654-1722) rouleau vase painted with fishermen and cranes took a six-times estimate £2800 at the 1200-lot Spring Sale at Hansons (20% buyer’s premium) on March 22-26.

The last weekend of the month, May 25-27, is given over to the latest staging of the Journées Marteau (Art Auctioneers Days) held by the French auctioneers’ association SYMEV.